In systems for editing and producing video and audio, it is increasingly necessary to include in the editing process various kinds of data that are adjunct to the audio and video data. Some of these data are associated with a video or audio sequence as a whole, or associated with a segment, and are not synchronous. Examples include descriptive metadata, such as information about the people involved in the production, date and location, as well as structural metadata, such as image format/type (e.g., HD, SD) and bit rate. However an increasing range of information in the form of data streams that are time-synchronized with the audio and video content is also being generated. This information is distinct from the audio and video portions itself, and represents additional information pertaining to the production and/or subject matter of the material.
In existing media editing and production systems, time-based adjunct data, or metadata, are handled using different interfaces and editing paradigms from those for editing the audio or video media. This lack of integration introduces cumbersome and error-prone workflows for editors since it is often difficult to ensure that a particular version of the media is being monitored or recorded with the correct version of its time-based metadata. There exists a need to coordinate and streamline media editing interfaces to enable media to be edited more efficiently and reliably together with its corresponding time-based metadata.